Ing., Colonel Ivan Kutín

He spoke his opinions and I think they were right. He wanted to change communism into something more acceptable. That´s why I liked it - because it really was humane. That´s clear. And regarding the occupation, it was clear a man should condemn that. But even the condemning was prohibitted. So I condemned the occupation of our country ...they called it "the help of allied states", but it was an occupation. And I disagreed with that. That´s why I was excluded. My exams were completed, my dissertation thesis was finished but I was disabled to present and defence it.

I was expelled from the army in 1971. It was known I was a supporter and (as a member of college comittee) also a promother of Dubček´s ideas of socialism and humanity. That I didn´t agree with entering the armies of Warsaw pact our country. So I was called the "right-wing opportunist" during the party screening and my membership was cancelled. In consequence of that I was relegate from senior lecturer to technical assistant. Few moths later I was expelled from the army.

I witnessed an airraid to Ostrava there. It was the only one. It probably should strike ironworks in Vítkovice. The spifires came, that means fighter pilots, and they made kind of circle. Apparently on a place where should aim the bombing. But, accidentally or intentionally not a bomb fell on the ironworks. It all fell on a populated part of the city, near the ironworks. I watched the bombing on the bank of the river, it was Ostravice I guess. About three hundreds meters behind us were the FLAKs - anti-aircraft artillery which shot at the bombers. We saw just a smoke under the bombers. Obviously the FLAKs weren´t able to shoot so high so they can´t shoot any bomber down. By contrast, small pieces of grenades hissed into the water behind us. There was a huge piece of stone. It had a weight of twenty maybe thirty kilos. And I held it above my head all the time to protect myself from the pieces of grenades. If some would hit me, Iwouldn´t speak with you right now.

In 1961 was in the Military academy of Brno established a post of the older mentor of parachute tactics. It was offered to me and I accepted gladly. Regarding to mobilisation, I belonged into the staff of czechoslovakia front in that time. It was determined to plan airdrops. That´s why I took part in all front command-staff trainings compulsorily. Under these trainings I planned dropping of the parachute brigades on the Neckar river, on the Rhine and on the french-german borderline also. We made all these plans during the cold war. I´m glad the cold war didn´t develop into the real war and so these and other plans couldn´t be realized. Because every parachutist who should be dropped in the enemy´s rear knew it´s fifty fifty chance to come back home.